Marigold & Cockscomb

Click here for an audio guide by Srila Chatterjee

Baham tāj-i khurūs va ja‘farī yār/ Nishastah bā ham andar bazm-i gulzār Chunān bā ham basar-i yārānah burdand / Kih ābī dar chaman bī ham nakhvurand Dar āghūsh-i hamand az mihrbānī / Chū yāqūtī kih andar zar nishānī 

The cockscomb and the French marigold are lovers / Sitting together in the feast of the flowerbed.
They exist in such affection for each other / That they do not lose any time in the parterre without each other
Out of love they are locked in an embrace / Like a ruby that is set in gold

- Poet laureate Abū Ṭālib Kalīm Kāshānī (1581/1585-1651) at Shah Jahan’s court. Source and translation: Dr Nicolas Roth.

The Marigold & Cockscomb, one foreign and the other wild, tell the story of
colonisation, royal patronage and assimilation. The Columbian Exchange brought the
African and French Marigold to the subcontinent and the Mughals took a fancy to it.
These flowers were valued enough to decorate paintings, and merit a few portraits of
their own. Marigolds featured on fabric, in buildings, and in gardens until they became
ubiquitous.

The centre of the flowerbed comes alive with the warm colours of the marigold, and the
presence of eight insects. Called Ramji ka Ghoda, literally Lord Rama’s horse, the insects signify devotion and the free movement of seeds and stories.

Marigold, now an auspicious flower offered to the divine in any celebration, belongs to
the subcontinent, perhaps as much as the Central Asian princes who came to this land
and made it their home. The genda [marigold] is a common, extremely hardy, and a
beloved flower, but those that nurtured it are personae non grata.

Size: height 36 in. x breadth 75 in. x depth 13 in.

Materials: Discarded spring mattress frame, carved stone discards, glass baubles, metal
insects, spray paint, red skeins, and scrap metal flowers.